It ranks up there at the top of my “C’mon Hot Wheels!” list. That is the list of no-brainers we should have seen from Hot Wheels by now. There are quite a few items on that list, but at the top is why haven’t we seen a stock, or “stock-ish” Dodge A100?
The ’66 Dodge A100 Van is a tremendous casting. One of Hot Wheels’ best. Wonderfully executed with a ton of style. And crazy popular with collectors. It is one of those event castings, meaning it is significant when one is released. And there have been a lot of them.
The frustrating part though is that those releases have almost always been in Pop Culture. That means premium releases, but releases more about the theme of the assortment than the look of the car. More specifically, no versions that I might see on the road. More realism and less Muppets is my desire.
And Car Culture provides that opportunity. A “Van” or “Delivery” assortment would be most welcome, especially if the A100 is in it. And a plain look or simple delivery deco would be so nice. It would be an instant fave.
But it isn’t all bad. There have been some really nice releases of the A100, just not enough. And of all the releases, the first three continue to be the best. The A100 debuted in the Hot Wheels Delivery line, first in two “Union 76” liveries, and then later as part of a special Walmart set in “Dubble Bubble” deco.
And that Dubble Bubble A100 remains the grail A100. A little harder to get because it was part of a set, but easily the best-looking. Simple, retro deco with chrome steelies and redline tires. It’s a beauty.
Maybe one day a Car Culture or other premium model will top it, and I hope Hot Wheels at least tries. For now this is the pride of the Hot Wheels A100 collection.
Agreed, this is a tremendous casting. I too wish they would do a stock deco, but I’d have to defer and say the Union 76 is probably the pick of the bunch…a petroliana-themed deco will always trump a candy deco in my opinion. That’s not to say the Dubble Bubble is ugly…far from it, but Union 76 oozes a little more cool to my eye.
Actually, it was a Toys R Us exclusive set, the Sweet Rides box set.
And let’s not forget the 2011 Garage release, blue with flames
You know I think that too, but I think the Japan special with the pin strip art in black is gorgeous, same with the dark green club car, both of which I do not have but are on my list, as well as this double bubble. I do think the latest one, the brown one from the Starwars series is great too, because even though it is a theme, the color is super 70s van style, and the artwork looks like a bad ass vanning mural. Would love to see a series of retro theme tampos, like maybe a van that pays homage to a 70s Los Angeles radio station or something like that, even a good year tires logo, or other automotive thing, or fast food. I mean the 70s was an explosion of fast food and interstates. Also some of the best rock and roll ever , man I would love to just come up with awesome tampos to make cars look even better. Like imagine a all black one, with the dark side of the moon album cover, or the star man from Rush’s 2112, complete with tampos for the headlights, tail lights and grills. Yes, this is one of my favorite castings. Also, I hope Hotwheels continues to put different tampos on each side of the pop culture cars, to force us to open them and get a pleasant surprise.
Love it! And dang these photo’s do it justice! I like this Bubble version, the Union 76 is awesome, but the green mailin is drop dead gorgeos. The striping on it is spot on and the 5spokes don’t hurt either. Then again steelies…. It’s one of my favorites in my collection